This document provides definitions and concepts related to community organization from several experts and authors. It discusses community organization as a process where a community identifies needs, prioritizes them, develops confidence and willingness to address needs, finds resources, and promotes cooperation. Community organization recognizes democratic values and empowering people by addressing issues collectively. It believes communities can address social problems through teamwork and scientific methods. The document then provides definitions of community organization from several authors that emphasize processes of communities working together democratically to determine and meet social welfare needs.

1. BY AMIT KUMAR MOB NO.: +919435028022/9708811272 EMAIL-amitranjanfn09@outlook.com
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
DCTCL, CUJ RANCHI
WORKING WITH COMMUNITIES
BY
AMIT KUMAR
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
DEPARTMENT OF CONTEMPORARY AND TRIBAL CUSTOMARY LAW
CENTRAL UNIVIERSITY OF JHARKHAND
Lecture 1
CONCEPT AND MEANING OF COMMUNITY
• A relatively self-sufficient population, residing in a limited geographic area, bound
together by feelings of unity and interdependency.
• A social, religious, occupational, or other group sharing common characteristics or
interests and perceiving itself as distinct in some respect from the larger society
within which it exists, for example business community, teachers’ community,
students’ community etc.
• According to Bogardus, Community is a “social group with some degree of ‘we-
feeling’ & ‘living in given area’.
• According to Ogburn & Nimcoff, Community is “the total organization of social life
with a limited area”.
• Essential characteristics of community:
– Group of people
– Common Interests
– Common life and activities
– Common Norms
– Community sentiments
– Definite locality
– Permanent life in a definite place
– Natural
– Likeness in language, customs & mores etc.
– Particular name

2. BY AMIT KUMAR MOB NO.: +919435028022/9708811272 EMAIL-amitranjanfn09@outlook.com
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
DCTCL, CUJ RANCHI
– Spontaneous growth
Community Organization
Community organisation is one of the methods of social work. Basically, it focuses on
developing the capacities of local people in the community to solve their own problems.
Community organisation increases interactions among people. It tries to integrate and
coordinate with existing organisations/groups for helping people to identify their needs and
fulfil them.
The fundamental aspect of the community organizations is the principle of "Co-operative
spirit" which promotes the people to unite together to address a common issue. Community
organization recognizes the spirit of democratic values and principles and community
organization is about is creating democratic involvement. Organizing is about empowering.
When people unite together, barring all discriminations and get involved in the community
organizations, they develop confidence. This empowerment comes when people learn skills to
help themselves and others. The collective action helps in community building. The community
organization recognizes the power of individual. It believes, through the collective strength of
the people, better teamwork and adopting scientific methods can make comprehensive social
problems.
Before going into further details, let us deal with the definition of community organization.
Murray G. Ross (1967)
He defines community organisation as a “process by which a community identifies its needs
or objectives, gives priority to them, develops the confidence and will to work at them, finds
resources (internal and external) to deal with them, and in doing so, extends and develops co-
cooperative and collaborative attitudes and practices in the community”.
Kramer and Specht (1975)
They defined that “Community organisation refers to various methods of intervention whereby
a professional change agent helps a community action system composed of individuals, groups
or organisations to engage in planned collective action in order to deal with special problems
within the democratic system of values.”
Russell H. Kurtz (1940)

3. BY AMIT KUMAR MOB NO.: +919435028022/9708811272 EMAIL-amitranjanfn09@outlook.com
ASSISTANT PROFESSOR
DCTCL, CUJ RANCHI
As per him “Community organisation is a process dealing primarily with program relationships
and thus to be distinguished in its social work setting from those other basic processes,
casework and group work, which deal with people. Those relationships of agency to agency,
of agency to community and of community to agency reach in all directions from any focal
point in the social work picture. Community organisation may be thought of as the process by
which these relationships are initiated, altered or terminated to meet changing conditions, and
it is thus basic to all social work...”.
C.F. Mcneil (1954)
“Community organisation for social welfare is the process by which the people of community,
as individual citizens or as representatives of groups, join together to determine social welfare
needs, plan ways of meeting them and mobilize the necessary resources.
King (1948)
Community organisation refers to the process of building and maintaining a community of
interests or a common interest group. Someone has called this ‘the development of association
to meet need”
Mcmillan (1947)
Community organisation, in its generic sense, is a deliberately directed effort to assist groups
in attaining unity of its character, wherever the objective is to achieve or maintain a pool of
talents and resources of two or more groups on behalf of either general or specific objectives.
Lindeman (1921)
Community organisation is that phase of social organisation which constitutes a conscious
effort on the part of a community to control its affairs democratically, and to secure the highest
services from specialists, organisation, agencies and institutions by means of recognised
interrelations.
Pattit (1925)
The term community organisation is best defined as assisting a group of people to recognise
their common needs and helping them to meet needs.